Daimler to expand Mercedes-Benz Bank – invests € 500 mln

German carmaker Daimler plans to invest some 500 million euros ($696 million) to expand its Mercedes-Benz Bank and to add customer loans, besides providing loans to dealers only, the company said on Monday.

“Between now and 2018, we will be spending some 500 million euros ($696 million) on our European business. We are preparing the way for further volume growth, improve service for customers and for dealers and secure long-term jobs,” Franz Reiner, the CEO of Mercedes-Benz Bank said.

“In the next step, customer credits are to be integrated.” the CEO said.

The announcement comes after the German financing subsidiary, last week said in the first two months of 2014, contract volume increased by 17 percent – and last year the total volume of leasing and financing contracts has increased by 3 percent to 18.3 billion euros – up from 17.8 billion euros in 2012.

In February, the Mercedes-Benz Bank opened a branch in France. It follows on the two branches, which were opened in Spain in 2009 and in the UK in 2008.

In total, at this moment, Mercedes-Benz Bank has about 780,000 vehicles on the books – from small vehicles to large trucks like Actros.

In Germany, besides providing loans to dealers – the back offers car insurance services – a successful model as the number of automobile insured by the Mercedes-Benz bank grew by 3 percent to around 897,000 contracts.